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Opportunity Mars Rover Mission: Overview and Selected Results from Purgatory Ripple to Traverses to Endeavour Crater

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Opportunity Mars Rover Mission: Overview and Selected Results from Purgatory Ripple to Traverses to Endeavour Crater Opportunity Mars Rover mission: Overview and selected results from Purgatory ripple to traverses to Endeavour crater The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Arvidson, R. E., J. W. Ashley, J. F. Bell, M. Chojnacki, J. Cohen, T. E. Economou, W. H. Farrand, et al. 2011. “Opportunity Mars Rover Mission: Overview and Selected Results from Purgatory Ripple to Traverses to Endeavour Crater.” Journal of Geophysical Research 116, no. E7. Published Version doi:10.1029/2010JE003746 Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:12763596 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Open Access Policy Articles, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#OAP Opportunity Mars Rover Mission: Overview and Selected Results from Purgatory Ripple to Traverses to Endeavour Crater R. E. Arvidson1, J. W. Ashley2, J.F. Bell III3, M. Chojnacki4, J. Cohen5, T. E. Economou6, W. H. Farrand7, R. Fergason8, I. Fleischer9, P. Geissler8, R. Gellert10, M. P. Golombek11, J. P. Grotzinger12, E. A. Guinness1, R. M. Haberle13, K. E. Herkenhoff8, J. A. Herman11, K. D. Iagnemma14, B. L. Jolliff1, J. R. Johnson8, G. Klingelhöfer9, A.H. Knoll15, A. T. Knudson16, R. Li17, S. M. McLennan18, D. W. Mittlefehldt19, R.V. Morris19, T. J. Parker11, M. S. Rice3, C. Schröder20, L. A. Soderblom8, S. W. Squyres3, R. J. Sullivan3, M. J. Wolff7 1 Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA 2School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA 3Dept. of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA 4Planetary Geosciences Institute, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA 5Honeybee Robotics Spacecraft Mechanisms Corporation, New York, New York, USA. 6Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research, Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA 7Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO, USA 8U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ, USA 9Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, Germany 10Dept. of Physics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, CANADA 11Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA 12 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA 13NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA 14Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA 15Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA 16Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, USA 17Dept. of Civil & Env. Eng. & Geodetic Science, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA 18Department of Geosciences, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, USA 19NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA 20University of Bayreuth and Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Center for Applied Geoscience, Tübingen, Germany Submitted to: JGR-Planets, MER Special Issue Revision Submitted 11/3/10 1 1 Abstract 2 Opportunity has been traversing the Meridiani plains since 1/25/2004 (sol 1), 3 acquiring numerous observations of the atmosphere, soils, and rocks. This paper provides 4 an overview of key discoveries between sols 511 and 2300, complementing earlier papers 5 covering results from the initial phases of the mission. Key new results include: 1. 6 Atmospheric argon measurements that demonstrate the importance of atmospheric 7 transport to and from the winter carbon dioxide polar ice caps. 2. Observations showing 8 that aeolian ripples covering the plains were generated by easterly winds during an epoch 9 with enhanced Hadley cell circulation. 3. The discovery and characterization of cobbles 10 and boulders that include iron and stony-iron meteorites and Martian impact ejecta. 4. 11 Measurements of wall rock strata within Erebus and Victoria craters that provide 12 compelling evidence of formation by aeolian sand deposition, with local reworking 13 within ephemeral lakes. 5. Determination that the stratigraphy exposed in the walls of 14 Victoria and Endurance craters show an enrichment of chlorine and depletion of 15 magnesium and sulfur with increasing depth. This result implies that regional-scale 16 aqueous alteration took place before formation of these craters. Most recently, 17 Opportunity has been traversing toward the ancient Endeavour crater. Orbital data show 18 that clay minerals are exposed on its rim. Hydrated sulfate minerals are exposed in plains 19 rocks adjacent to the rim, unlike the anhydrous surfaces of plains outcrops observed thus 20 far by Opportunity. With continued mechanical health, Opportunity will reach terrains on 21 and around Endeavour’s rim that will be markedly different from anything examined to 22 date. 23 2 24 Introduction 25 The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity touched down on the Meridiani 26 plains on January 25, 2004 (Figs. 1-2). Since landing, Opportunity has conducted 27 numerous traverses and made extensive measurements with its Athena science payload 28 (Table 1), including examination of impact crater ejecta deposits, rims, and walls to 29 access and characterize stratigraphic rock sections within the Burns formation [e.g., 30 Squyres and Knoll, 2005], detailed examination of a variety of cobbles and boulders 31 exposed on the surface, and characterization of the aeolian ripples that partially cover 32 plains outcrops. In addition, numerous atmospheric opacity and cloud measurements have 33 been acquired using Pancam and Navcam, and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer 34 (APXS) has been used to monitor atmospheric argon mixing ratios. 35 The purpose of this paper is to summarize operations and present selected 36 scientific highlights from the time Opportunity left the Purgatory* aeolian ripple on sol 37 511 (July 1, 2005) to the first relatively high spatial resolution views of the Endeavour 38 crater rim on sol 2300 (July 13, 2010; Fig.1 and Table 2). The paper also includes a 39 synthesis of orbital and rover-based data for areas along and close to Opportunity’s 40 traverses for interpretations of material properties, morphology, and geologic histories on 41 both local and regional scales. This overview is meant to complement papers that provide 42 detailed findings from Opportunity’s measurements that are included as the fourth set of 43 Mars Exploration Rover papers published in the Journal of Geophysical Research and 44 also published elsewhere over the past several years. For reference, Squyres et al., [2003] 45 provide a summary of the Athena science payload and Squyres et al., [2006] summarize 3 46 Opportunity mission results up to embedding into and extrication from the Purgatory 47 ripple, i.e., up to sol 510. 48 *Unless otherwise noted, names for features used in this paper are informal. 49 Background Discussion 50 MER Mission science objectives are focused on remote sensing and in-situ 51 observations along traverses to characterize current and past Martian environments and 52 the role of water in formation and alteration of the surface and associated crustal 53 materials [Squyres et al., 2003]. These objectives are aligned with the overarching NASA 54 Mars Exploration Program themes of “follow the water” and searching for evidence of 55 past or present habitable zones and life. For reference, on the other side of the planet the 56 Spirit rover has been exploring the Inner Basin, Columbia Hills, Gusev Crater, and has 57 acquired data that indicate the presence of hydrated sulfate, opaline, and carbonate- 58 bearing mineral deposits of likely fumarolic or hydrothermal origins [Arvidson et al., 59 2008, 2010; Squyres et al., 2008; Morris et al., 2010]. Opportunity landed on the 60 Meridiani plains, selected primarily because the Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission 61 Spectrometer (TES) data indicated a high abundance of hematite, a mineral typically 62 formed in an aqueous environment [Christensen et al. 2001]. Data collected by 63 Opportunity within Eagle and Endurance craters conclusively showed that the hematite 64 signature is carried by hematitic concretions weathered from sulfate-rich bedrock and 65 concentrated as a surface lag, partly worked into basaltic sand ripples that cover much of 66 the plains [Soderblom et al., 2004; Sullivan et al., 2005; Arvidson et al., 2006; Jerolmack 67 et al., 2006]. Further, the sulfate-rich sandstones that comprise the Burns formation and 68 that underlie the ripples were found to be largely ancient aeolian sandstone deposits, with 4 69 local reworking within ephemeral lakes [Squyres et al., 2004; Grotzinger et al., 2005, 70 2006; Metz et al., 2009]. Post depositional aqueous processes have altered the deposits as 71 evidenced by the presence of hematitic concretions and fracture-filling deposits 72 [McLennan et al., 2005; Knoll et al., 2008]. Opportunity has continued to search for the 73 mud-rich rock facies that would help confirm the hypothesis that the sands formed from 74 precursor evaporates in a playa lake environment. 75 The Burns formation rocks examined by Opportunity are part of a regional-scale 76 deposit that covers several hundred thousand square kilometers and is best explained by 77 accumulation during one or more periods of rising ground water [e.g., Andrews-Hanna et 78 al., 2010] (Fig. 1). These deposits
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